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    said , ( without irreverence , ) that as Augustus Caesar is reported to have declared that , Emperor as he was , he could not introduce a new word among the Romans ; so the Author of a

    dispensation of revealed truth can sooner introduce a new system of religious ideas , than cause it to be expressed by an underived and original frame of language . And it is well it is so ; for the more familiar the language , the

    better it is understood 3 and an abstract method of expressing truths relating to religion would be an uninteresting jargon , quite foreign from all practicable use or benefit .

    Again , according to the supposition we have made , what impression might naturally be felt by these writers and by those to whom they wrote , which it would be necessary to provide against ? Surely the following ; that although the understanding fully

    admitted the superior excellence of the new dispensation , yet there was experienced a blank in their feelings , a loss of some of the habitual pleasures and tastes of a religious kind , to which they had been accustomed , and a eonsequent tendency towards apathy , and

    alienation of mind from religious pursuits . As this exposed believers to the temptation of going back to Judaism , and was a stumbling-block for those who remained in unbelief , it was highly important to provide against t . And it was natural to take the

    method of providing against it , which is employed in the Epistle to the Hebrews . The design of which is well described in the following sentence : " The Christian Hebrews had been charged with the want of an altar , a priest and a sacrifice . In answer , the apostle shews that they were in want of none of these /'

    Let us make one further supposition . Let us suppose that the author and principal person of this new spiritual kingdom , after leading a blameless and holy life , in continual obedience to God , and pursuit of the best interests of man , was persecuted on account of his goodness , and the

    sublime objects he had in view , and ( rather than give up those objects , and ! adopt the worldly and wicked schemed of the priests and people of Israel ) did voluntarily submit himself to the effects of their rage , and sutler death upon the cross ; after which , being

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    raised far above all principality antl power , and no longer subject to their controul , he had power given him from heaven to send forth his apostles upon the ministry of reconciliation to the whole world ; delivering from the

    power of death by the evidence of his resurrection , and from the power of sin by a proclamation of forgiveness for sins past , and a future righteous judgment , —can it be said to be unnatural , absurd for persons educated in the ancient religion to describe so wonderful

    so glorious a series ot events , by all the images that had formerly been devoted to express their most sacred , exalted and delightful conceptions ? Can we wonder that Christ should be termed

    a sacrifice , a priest , an altar , a in ere yseat ; that he should be compared to the high priest entering into the holy of holies ; and that his ascending to heaven should be described as an

    entering within the veil , offering up himself as a sacrifice once for all , now to appear in the presence of God for us , putting away sin by the sacrifice of himself ? Thus we see that both by habit and

    by design it was natural for the apostles of Jesus Christ to express themselves on this animating and delightful subject with a figurativeness , such as our theory of sacrifices , under the Jewish law , requires .

    Nor can we see any harm in their being suffered to follow the natural bent of their feelings and course of their expressions , in this instance . It conciliated without misleading the Jews , who were accustomed to such

    allusions ; and it would neither mislead nor revolt those of the present day , if they duly reflected on the necessary influence of previous circumstances on the minds of the apostles . In the judgment , however , of the amiable and plausible writer lately mentioned ,

    ( Wardlaw in loc ., ) " This is at once to deprive their language of its meaning , and the rites alluded to , of theirs . It is , besides / ' says he , " to charge the writers with singular folly . No idea could well be simpler , or more easilv expressed , than that ot a

    prophet ' s dying to confirm his testimony , or even to afford , in his own rising from the grave , the evidence and pledge of a future resurrection . Why such language as that which has been quoted should be so constantly used to-

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    462 An Essay on the Nature and Design of Sacrifices under the Mosaic La w *

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 462, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/30/